A "journey" involving running in place in the deep end. Quite possibly I've gone off the deep end.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Training log - Week ending 2/20/11

This week was 23 miles of “real running” and 65 “miles” pool running (per my conversion below) -- training log is here. The week was a bit in flux, as I had a business trip on Wednesday-Friday, meaning that I ran my tempo during a very windy race on Saturday (report here) and pushed back my "long run" to Monday (hence the lower mileage).

I'm feeling like I'm continuing to progress and regain my fitness. It seems that where I'm weakest right now is stamina, both mental and physical. I've got speed, and I have good basic endurance. But sustaining speed over distance is hard, both mentally and physically. This has always been my weakness, and pool-running isn't the best way to address it. In the past, I addressed this issue with high mileage and workouts with longer repeats and long warm-ups/cool-downs. Of course, right now with the sharp restriction on my running mileage, that's not an option.

I believe that the answer here will be my long run (run as a progression run) and weekly tempo. I need to make sure that I prioritize both of those runs, including resting and recovering properly on the other days.

Related to this, my coach and I have agreed that for now I'm going to be keeping my "track interval" workouts in the pool. Thing is, I historically haven't gotten that much benefit out of short repeats on the track, and they're also the highest-risk, in terms of reinjury. I'm not crazy about continuing those workouts in the pool, but it really makes much more sense that way. We will do a standard track intervals workout from time to time, but they're not going to be a weekly thing for me.

Dailies

Monday: In the morning, "12 miles” of easy pool-running – 2 hours. Did a "mat pilates" class that ended up being more of an abs class at night, followed by "2 miles" – 20 minutes easy pool-running.

Tuesday: In the morning, 9 miles of easy land-running outside (8:32 pace), followed by “5 miles” of easy pool-running – 50 minutes.

In the evening, a weights session with a personal trainer, followed by 40 minutes easy pool-running for “4 more miles."

Wednesday: In the morning, “14 miles” of pool-running, including a “track 800s workout” of 10x3:00 at hard effort, with 1:00 recovery, followed by full recovery, and then 30 minutes at aerobic effort. Drag luggage through train stations in afternoon. (In the evening, dinner with online friend Races Like a Girl)

Thursday: In the morning, 10 miles easy (8:40 pace) outside on somewhat uneven terrain (tried to stick to flat areas, but hard to avoid hills in the area of northern Westchester County where I was).

Saturday: In the morning, a 1 mile warm-up plus a 5K race as a tempo (21:05 for 6:47 pace, in horribly windy conditions). Followed with "10 more miles" in the pool (1:40 hours easy pool-running), and then a yoga class.

I'm just catching up. Last week was awesome for you! And, selfishly, I'm happy you're still doing intervals in the pool. I love the company/camaraderie, though of course will be thrilled for you when you start doing them on the track :)

Full slew of race reports here (from my first in June 2007 to 2010) and here (2011).

workouts

(you can click on the link to see the details)

Pool running conversion

I convert my pool-running into “mileage” with this formula:

1)10 minutes “easy” in the pool equals one mile

2)workouts translate by time into mileage, with the recoveries not counting for mileage.For example, I would normally cover half a mile in 3:00 during an interval workout, and 1.5 miles in 10:00 during a tempo.So 8x3:00 at interval effort is 4 miles, and 10 minutes at tempo effort is 1.5 miles.